Davie studies halt to mobile home park conversions

Task force will consider solutions from community

DAVIE — Town Council members agreed Wednesday to consider putting a moratorium on mobile home park conversions.

They gave the town attorney two weeks to issue an opinion on whether such action would be legal.

The move came after about 200 mobile home park residents showed up at Town Hall and pleaded for solutions as more parks are sold and developed into condo and townhouse communities.

"We need your help to stop what's going on now. We have so many kids, where are they going to go?" asked Jeff Englander, a resident of Kings Manor in Davie. He received a letter from his landlord last month that his park may be sold or rezoned.

"If I wasn't living with my parents, we wouldn't be able to afford anything. My three children would be homeless," said Brandy Caradonna, of Hollywood, a former resident of the Stirling Road mobile home park in eastern Davie that was shut down a few months ago.

Council members said they needed a moratorium to give them time to study solutions. They agreed to create a task force and seek input from park owners, residents and community leaders.

"We should really try to work with the residents and the park owners to provide options," said Councilwoman Susan Starkey. "It's important that we get it right and fair."

The council's decision came after they debated a proposal that would have required park owners to pay evicted residents enough money to relocate to permanent and comparable housing.

But Paul Figg, an attorney representing mobile home park owner Austin Forman, warned that such a proposal would be unconstitutional.

Mayor Tom Truex agreed.

"It doesn't seem logical to ask the park owners to shoulder the entire cost of relocating people. At some point, you're almost confiscating their property rights," he said.

Last month, residents of Sunshine Village and Kings Manors, two parks with more than 500 homes in western Davie, received letters from their landlord, Uniprop of Birmingham, Mich., that the park may be sold or rezoned.

"If we're rezoned, I'm screwed," said Gigi Strassman, who lives in a four-bedroom doublewide in Kings Manor. "You have single women with children living out there. I feel sorry for them."

A surge in land prices throughout Broward County has motivated mobile home park owners to sell their properties.

With parks closing down, many residents are struggling to find affordable housing in a county where monthly rents average $917 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,423 for a three-bedroom.

Brandon Biederman, a spokesman for the Builders Association of South Florida, said half of Broward County's workforce earns less than $25,000 a year.

"It's a community-wide problem and we need community-wide solutions," he said.

Thomas Monnay can be reached at tmonnay@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7924.